The present invention relates generally to processing data representing melt characteristics of oligonucleotides, and more particularly to systems and methods for determining melting temperatures for an oligonucleotide sample based on melt curve data.
Determination of oligonucleotide or DNA melting temperatures, usually performed directly after a PCR experiment, is an important method to distinguish genotypes. Some assays require the determination of multiple melting temperatures to identify wild-type from mutant genes. Alternatively, melting assays can be used with a single genotype to quantitatively determine the amount of a gene based on peak height. For example, recently discussed in the literature is the use of examining the KRAS gene to determine which patients might be candidates for a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. Patients whose KRAS gene is of a wild-type would benefit from the treatment, whereas if the patient had a mutant variation of this gene, the treatment would be of no benefit. As these treatments often have major side effects, it is very important to determine the patient's correct genotype. It is also useful to know the amount of gene present.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide systems and methods that accurately and efficiently determine the melting temperature of a DNA sample and the amount of gene based on peak height.